Poached Eggs for Dinner? I think yes.

I'll start with a disclaimer: I have never poached an egg before tonight. I've never even eaten a poached egg. But I've been meaning to for awhile, especially after I watched "Julie and Julia." So I'm not going to claim to be an expert egg poacher (but that probably goes without saying when you look at my picture). But what I do know is that I love a nice runny egg yolk, and on this front the poached egg does not disappoint. Poached eggs are similar to hard boiled eggs in terms of how the egg whites taste. Unfortunately my first one was the only one that looked right. Even so, they tasted great. I used this Gordon Ramsey video as a guide:

I made sure to let the water get to a rolling boil. The eggs cooked very quickly and I followed the advice to transfer the eggs into cold water.

Eggs are a great option to use instead of meat. They are fairly low-calorie and high protein, so they make for a filling meal unless you have cholesterol issues. Otherwise, a poached egg on top of asparagus or spinach makes for a simple, healthy meal.

Warm Wilted Spinach Salad

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped red onions

3 cloves minced garlic

1 pkg. fresh mushrooms

Juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon, to taste

1/4 cup chicken stock

1 9 oz. bag fresh spinach

1/2 cup feta

1/4 cup pecans

short drizzle of olive oil

sea salt, to taste

fresh cracked pepper, to taste

Method:

Heat a short drizzle worth of olive oil in a deep pan and add the red onion and a bit of salt and pepper. Saute the onion for a few minutes until caramelized and then deglaze the pan with chicken stock. White wine would also work. Add garlic and mushrooms. Continue to cook the onions, garlic and mushrooms over medium high heat until the mushrooms are cooked through. Reduce heat to medium and add the spinach, lemon juice salt and pepper and stir until spinach has wilted. Top with poached eggs, feta and pecans. I added the feta and pecans after I took the picture, but the flavors all went together very nicely.